The journey west took three weeks.
Lin Feng could have flown faster, but Mei needed rest, and he found himself reluctant to push their pace. The Dragon's warnings about heavenly attention had unsettled him, and some part of his transformed mind recognized that burning out before the final confrontation would be worse than taking time to prepare.
So they traveled at a measured pace, stopping in villages and settlements along the way.
Word had spread.
"The Devourer," people whispered as they passed through. "The one who killed the Phoenix."
Lin Feng had expected fear. Instead, he found something stranger: hope.
"The fire zones are cooling," an elder told him in a mountain village. "For the first time in centuries, we can expand our fields. Our children might grow up without fear of the heat."
"My family was killed by corrupted beasts when I was young," a merchant confessed over dinner. "I never thought anyone could fight back. But you're actually doing it."
"Please," a mother begged, clutching his hands, "please keep going. My son was taken by the Tiger's territory. If you can kill that monster..."
Lin Feng accepted their gratitude awkwardly, unsure how to process the shift in how the world saw him. He'd spent his entire life being despised, looked down upon, treated as less than nothing. Now people bowed to him. Prayed for his success.
"It's strange," he told Mei one night. "I set out for revenge. To make the heavens pay for abandoning us. But these people don't care about revenge. They just want to live without fear."
"Those aren't mutually exclusive." Mei leaned against his shoulder, her warmth grounding him. "Revenge against the heavens means destroying the system that created divine beasts. That means a better world for everyone."
"But that's not why I started."
"Does it matter?" She looked up at him. "Intentions change. Motivations evolve. You started walking this path for yourself, but now you're walking it for others too."
"And if I have to choose? Between revenge and saving people?"
Mei was quiet for a long moment.
"I don't think you will," she said finally. "The path you're on doesn't allow for half measures. You either reach the heavens or you die trying. Either way, you'll change the world."
Lin Feng thought about that as they continued west.
---
They encountered their first heavenly scouts two weeks into the journey.
Lin Feng sensed them before he saw them. Beings of pure essence, their signatures too refined to be mortal. They descended from the clouds like falling stars, three figures in white robes with faces that were beautiful and terrible in equal measure.
"Devourer." The lead figure's voice resonated with authority. "You are commanded to cease your activities and surrender yourself to heavenly judgment."
Lin Feng didn't move. "And if I refuse?"
"Then we are authorized to use force." The scout's expression was impassive. "You have consumed a divine beast, a creature sacred to heaven. This crime cannot be forgiven."
"Sacred?" Lin Feng laughed, and flames flickered at the edges of his form. "The Phoenix killed thousands of people. Corrupted entire regions. Made the world worse by existing."
"The divine beasts serve heaven's purposes. Their actions are beyond mortal judgment."
"Then heaven's purposes are evil." Lin Feng drew Devourer's Fang. "And I reject them."
The scouts exchanged glances.
"You would fight us?"
"If I have to." Lin Feng felt the hunger rising, eager for the confrontation. These beings were powerful, more powerful than anything he'd faced except the divine beasts themselves. But he'd consumed a Phoenix. He'd absorbed the original God Eater's accumulated essence.
He wasn't afraid.
"Stand down, Mei," he said quietly.
"Lin Feng—"
"Please."
She retreated, though her expression made clear she didn't like it.
Lin Feng faced the scouts alone.
"Last chance," he said. "Leave now, and I'll pretend this never happened."
The lead scout's response was a beam of pure light that should have vaporized Lin Feng where he stood.
He was already moving.
---
The battle was brief and brutal.
The scouts were skilled, millennia of training evident in every movement. But they were also complacent. They'd spent eons dealing with mortal cultivators, beings who could be overwhelmed with raw power.
Lin Feng wasn't a mortal cultivator.
He moved through them like fire through dry grass, Devourer's Fang singing its hungry song. The first scout fell to a strike that consumed its essence mid-swing, power flooding into Lin Feng even as the body dissolved. The second tried to flee, but Lin Feng's flame wings were faster.
The third, the leader, managed to mount a defense.
"What are you?" it demanded, blocking Lin Feng's assault with a barrier of light. "No human should possess such power!"
"I'm not human anymore." Lin Feng pushed harder, feeling the barrier crack. "I'm something new. Something your masters never prepared for."
The barrier shattered.
Lin Feng's palm pressed against the scout's forehead.
He consumed.
---
The power from heavenly beings was different from beast essence.
It was purer, more refined, carrying traces of the celestial realm itself. Lin Feng felt his body adapt as he absorbed it, his transformation accelerating, new capabilities emerging that he hadn't possessed moments before.
But more important than the power were the memories.
He saw heaven. Not clearly, the scouts had been low-ranking, their access limited, but enough. Gleaming palaces. Endless gardens. Beings of impossible beauty and terrifying power.
And watching over everything, enthroned in glory beyond mortal comprehension, the Jade Emperor himself.
*So that's my enemy*, Lin Feng thought. *That's what I have to defeat.*
The Emperor's face was calm, serene, utterly certain of his own supremacy. He looked like a god should look. Perfect. Eternal. Inevitable.
He also looked like someone who had never faced a real challenge.
*Good*, the hunger whispered. *Complacency makes prey easier to consume.*
Lin Feng opened his eyes.
Mei was staring at him with an expression he couldn't read.
"Three of them," she said. "You killed three heavenly scouts in less than a minute."
"They weren't expecting real resistance." Lin Feng sheathed Devourer's Fang. "Heaven has been unchallenged for so long, they've forgotten what it's like to fight someone who can fight back."
"And now they'll know."
"Now they'll know." Lin Feng's expression hardened. "Which means we need to move faster. This was a scouting force. The real response will be worse."
"The White Tiger is still weeks away."
"Not if we fly without stopping." Lin Feng extended his hand. "Hold tight. This is going to be intense."
Mei took his hand, and he pulled her close.
His wings erupted, brighter than before, burning with stolen celestial fire.
They rose into the sky like a comet, streaking west toward the mountains.
---
Three days of near-constant flight brought them to the Tiger's territory.
Lin Feng had pushed himself to the limit, his enhanced body drawing on reserves he hadn't known existed. Even so, exhaustion pulled at him as they descended toward the mountain range that marked their destination.
"You need to rest," Mei insisted.
"I'll rest after I've consumed the Tiger."
"You'll collapse before you reach it at this rate." She grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop. "Listen to me. The Dragon warned that the Tiger is the most dangerous of the divine beasts. You can't face it exhausted."
"The heavens are coming—"
"And they'll come whether you rest or not. A few hours won't change anything." Her eyes were fierce. "Please, Lin Feng. For me, if not for yourself."
He wanted to argue. The hunger demanded action, consumption, more power. But Mei's expression left no room for argument, and some rational part of his mind acknowledged that she was right.
"A few hours," he agreed reluctantly. "Then we hunt."
They found shelter in a cave high in the mountains, far from any paths or settlements. Lin Feng's senses told him they were alone. No beasts, no scouts, nothing but rock and wind.
He collapsed against the cave wall, suddenly aware of how tired he truly was.
"The celestial power is still integrating," Mei observed, examining him with her soul medicine techniques. "Your body is trying to process three different essences at once. That's why you're so drained."
"Will it stabilize?"
"Eventually. But you're pushing too hard, too fast." She sat beside him, close enough that their shoulders touched. "The original Devourer took centuries to reach your current level. You've done it in months."
"He didn't have the heavens actively hunting him."
"No. But he also didn't have support." She took his hand. "You're not alone in this, Lin Feng. Let me help."
"You're already helping."
"I mean really help." She hesitated. "The spirit inside me, it's been offering its power since the Phoenix fight. I've been refusing, but maybe I shouldn't."
Lin Feng tensed. "What kind of power?"
"Soul binding. A technique that would link us at the deepest level." Her voice was uncertain. "It would let me share your burdens. Help stabilize your transformations. Keep the hunger from overwhelming you."
"And the cost?"
"Our fates would be tied together. If you die, I die. If you lose yourself to the hunger, I lose myself too."
Lin Feng's first instinct was to refuse. The risk was too great, Mei's life too precious to bind to his uncertain path.
But looking at her face, seeing the determination there, he understood something he'd been avoiding.
They were already bound. Had been since she'd chosen to follow him into the wastelands. Whatever happened, their fates were intertwined.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"I've never been more sure of anything."
"Then do it."
Mei closed her eyes. Her hands pressed against his chest, directly over his heart.
And something ancient, something that had been sleeping inside her since she was twelve years old, began to wake.
